Often, fluids injected into a wellbore may be reactive, corrosive, or otherwise damaging to wireline equipment. Alternatively, operations may necessitate wireline equipment being withdrawn simultaneously to the injection of fluid into the wellbore, which would mean the wireline equipment would face increased resistance in the form of counter-directional fluid flow. In both instances, creating a circular or helical fluid flow therefore minimizes the impact of these fluids on the equipment.
Prior art wellheads, such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,575,247 to Tolman and U.S. Pat. No. 7,478,673 to Boyd, have attempted to introduce this flow pattern through use of angled injection ports and funneled mixing chambers to create a drain vortex. However, both of these methods reduce the overall capacity of the wellhead for fluid flow.
A need therefore exists for a wellhead which can create a circular or helical fluid flow for larger amounts of fluid, for instance, as used in fracking-type operations. Embodiments disclosed in the present application meet this need.